Welcome to Academic Year 2025-26

The Fall semester started yesterday just as we entered the second week of a heat wave: 111 degrees and a humidity that spawned monsoonal storms over night. Sure doesn’t feel like autumn, but here we are. Summer’s sleepy campus has been replaced by the energy that our students bring as they walk, skateboard, scooter and bike around with an infectious happiness. I love it.

I have two traditions that foster some good feeling as the semester begins:

1. Bring in Dunkin' Munchkins for the office to launch the new year via shared sugar high (this ritual is one of the most New England-y things about me). This year they cam in a summer themed bucket but there were some pumpkin flavored ones on the bottom, a jarring juxtaposition.

2. Send a note to all our faculty and staff to remind them that their efforts are seen, appreciated, and valued.

If you are headed back to campus now or in the near future ... good luck! Maybe you, like me, will keep reminding yourself that never have our efforts in higher education been more needed, across everything we undertake.